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Chapter Ten Notes: Baroque Instrumental Music Listen (9th edition) by Kerman and Tomlinson

[10.1] Concerto and Concerto Grosso: Introduction:  The concerto and the concerto grosso were the most important genres of the Baroque era with the underlying idea being the contrast between an orchestra and one soloist (concerto) or multiple (concerto grosso).  Concertos exemplify a large scale approach to instrumental composition which composers wanted as audiences had grown impressed by longer compositions than shorter ones. Movements:  A movement is a self-contained section of music that is a part of a larger work that can its own distinct tempo, musical form and mood; it was one way to extend a composition.  Baroque concertos typically consisted of three movements.  The first would be bright and energetic in a fast tempo while the second would contrast that with a more quiet, slower and more emotional tone.  The last movement would be very similar in energy to the first movement and could be very much faster than the first. Ritornello Form:  Many Baroque concerto movements, especially the first and third, are in ritornello form--from ritornello, the name for the orchestral music that starts the movement off.  Ritornello focuses on exemplifying the contrast between the orchestra and the soloist as it is the material that the movement returns to; usually the ritornello returns in part and in a different key than the first until the end, when it returns in full.

Chapter Ten Notes: Baroque Instrumental Music Listen (9th edition) by Kerman and Tomlinson

[10.2] Fugue: Introduction:  Fugue is one of the most important and characteristic achievements of the Baroque era.  A fugue is a polyphonic composition for a fixed number of instrumental lines or voices, usually three or four, built on a single principle theme known as the subject.  The subject repeats multiple times in each of the instrumental or vocal lines. Fugal Exposition:  A fugue begins with an exposition in which all three voices present the subject in an orderly, standardized way.  Usually one voice enters alone with the subject and then continues on with its new material as the second voice enters with the subject.  This cycle repeats with each voice in which this section of the fugue, the exposition, is over.  Following the exposition, the subject enters at intervals with some of the later subject entries in different keys.  Usually these are spaced out by and alternates with passages of other music called episodes which provide contrast to the entries. Fugal Devices:  In addition to the exposition, subject and episode, the countersubject exists as sort of a second subject that fits in counterpoint with the first, shadowing it in all its appearances after the beginning.  Very often, composers will shorten the space between subject entries from what was heard in the exposition so that the entries follow one another faster and are almost stacked on top of each other in a technique known as stretto.

Chapter Ten Notes: Baroque Instrumental Music Listen (9th edition) by Kerman and Tomlinson

[10.3] Baroque Dances: The Dance Suite:  Many different types of dances existed in the Baroque era and many were distinguished with features originally associated with the dance steps--a certain meter, distinctive meter and some rhythmic attributes.  One example would be the minuet which was a simple dance in triple time with a moderate tempo.  The custom all over Europe was to group a collection of miscellaneous dances together not subject to any particular rule nor order; this was known as the suite.  The last dance of the collection was always fast, frequently a gigue, a dance in compound meter that may have been derived from the Irish jig....